The british university system is facing a crisis | thearticle

The Covid-19 pandemic affects every aspect of universities and higher education institutes. It ratchets up the pre-existing financial pressures, especially on some of the smaller colleges —

pressures which public policy has not yet begun to address. But it also raises a wider, profoundly challenging question: what if anything, is still unique about the identity, mission, and

ethos of a university in a world in which knowledge is ubiquitous and the advantages of massively expensive physical infrastructure is, with some obvious exceptions, increasingly

problematic? The most brilliant lectures, the most inspiring lecturers, the more up-to-date-material is no longer necessarily found in LT 101: it’s all on Google, You Tube and other

platforms. What was once a supplementary “resource” to the wisdom available on campus, is suddenly emerging as an alternative source of knowledge, in the form of the “virtual campus”. The

digitisation of teaching and learning was already driving academic engagement between students and staff. What Covid-19 has done is to propel this process forward at warp speed, a far

swifter rate than even the most far-sighted institutions had anticipated, towards a near-total dependence on virtual learning and digital communication platforms. There is a wider context to

all of this — there has also been a shift in the convergence of higher education and the technology sector. “Knowledge” is now regarded as having commercial value in itself. This has

re-shaped the role of universities around the generation, transfer, and commercialisation of knowledge. But it has also left them vulnerable. What were once “communities” have become

increasingly corporatised in their values and behaviour, as well as in their mindset and structures. This raises further questions as to what universities are really _ for_. Are they there

to train the next generation of unthinking consumers? Are they a research annex for a globalised economy dominated by overbearing technological behemoths, whose vulnerability has been so

dramatically demonstrated by Covid-19? Or is there a deeper purpose to universities beyond a purely utilitarian calculus? If there is _no_ such purpose, then the claims of universities on

the Exchequer, based on their intrinsic nature as a “Public Good”, are much more difficult to sustain, especially in the face of intense competition for public resources. If there _is_ such

a purpose, then Universities need to make their case accordingly. The frenetic search for a vaccine highlights the importance of the labs and the science blocks. But the philosophy and

theology departments have as much to teach us about why we are searching for “the cure” and how best to make it available on the basis of the Common Good, beyond a purely corporate or

political rationale. Universities must now compete even more fiercely for Exchequer funding. Putting up student fees would be socially regressive and politically suicidal, especially

considering the likely rise in youth unemployment rates. The largest and most prestigious colleges are increasingly turning to the capital markets to access long-term funding. This is a less

of an option for smaller universities, especially now that large capital expenditure projects need to be reworked, from the ground upwards. Digitisation, uncertainty about numbers, and

social distancing have changed the maths. Funding models are beginning to emerge in some countries where public support is given for economically-grounded degree courses, but not for those

that are ideologically quixotic. A growing number of universities in the UK and across Europe are facing death by a thousand cuts. That will mean lower staffing levels, fewer promotions and

lower levels of support staff, from administration to counselling. Cutbacks in staffing are already happening in Cambridge, which gives some idea of the pressure that’s mounting on less

well-established institutions. These events challenge all of us — universities, government, and society alike — to reflect on that most basic of questions, namely “why are Universities

here?” Has the digitisation of learning, secularisation which largely rejects the importance of “community” and the hegemony of our technocratic culture, made our universities obsolete?

Because if that is the case, then the franchise of universities is suddenly contestable. They have become vulnerable to fragmentation and to new lower-cost knowledge providers. And if those

institutions that we designate “Universities” are essentially “corporates”, then best be done with the pretence of university education as a portal to something deeper. Good news for the

Treasury, one would have thought. In reality, the greatest challenge confronting universities is the evidence seen across the West that universities have lost sight of their central purpose,

which is embedded in the Hellenic and Christian roots of universities. It resonates through Newman’s epochal “Idea of a University”, in which the search for truth is the source of their

internal coherence. It’s what defines their identity and their mission – and, crucially, justifies additional public support in these harsh of times. This perspective is magnificently

vindicated in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s 1978 Harvard Commencement address and in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech. It goes wholly against the grain of the contemporary woke culture and the

pliant leadership in which universities are increasingly shrouded. Does truth matter? Has empiricism displaced the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake? This question is relevant to the

funding of universities, and is of actor significance now that an economic crisis has put the sustainability of universities’ business model at risk. So, Covid-19 is a crisis: yes. But, more

positively, it may also be a point of catharsis, which causes universities to reflect on their unique identity and mission in these strange times. _This article summarises the argument set

out in detail in a paper in the current issue of “Studies”. The author wishes to thank the editor_